Renaturing: Small Ways to Wild the World describes the author’s attempts to reintroduce nature and wildlife to a two acre plot of land near his countryside home. “Renaturing” is used in preference to the more familiar term “Rewilding” as Canton argues the latter should be reserved for large scale projects such as Knepp and Yellowstone that involve the reintroduction of large predators and other keystone species.

Having previously enjoyed Isabella Tree’s book on rewilding, I was expecting to love this one – unfortunately I found it something of a struggle. Partly this was down to my expectations. Given the title I was expecting the book to include hints and tips about how we can all reintroduce nature into our gardens. Not so much. Otherwise, I found the high level of dialogue – detailing conversations between the author and an array of farming and conservation experts – quite difficult to engage with.

No book suits every reader and unfortunately this one wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Canongate Books, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What started as an account of one family's attempt to renature their own small area of land to encourage others to rewild on a small scale had good intentions but Canton was too fond of name dropping for my taste and I found that the book became a little show-boaty and not really a book that would encourage others to try.

Some of the wider points he made about many of the lauded rewilding schemes only being heard of because they are financially successful was interesting, as was the point that you can't really call it rewilding if you aren't actually taking the land back to how it originally was - with the large predators.
At points the book did also feel repetitive - through bad editing rather than the repetitive tasks of gardening

Please see link for full review.

I’ve reviewed this title for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk. I’ve chosen it as both a LoveReading Star Book and a Liz Pick of the Month.

As I read Renaturing fires were burning across the Atlantic in LA and flood waters covered much of the landscape around my Nottinghamshire home. Homo Colossus, industrial man, has had a devastating impact on our planet and it is hard to push back the thought that we are at the end of the world as we know it. Industrial civilisation is not a sustainable way of life and it seems certain that it is now in terminal decline.

So, in that situation taking over a couple of acres of land and working with it to restore some natural environment and increase biodiversity might seem a pointless task. The world is changing, humans are facing a threat to their very existence, and things we have taken for granted are likely going to disappear fairly soon. Nothing we can feasibly do will change that, but I still believe it matters. We still need to do the next best thing that we can, we need to accept our predicament and use the release it gives us to be the best we can be in the time we have.

James Canton owns a pasture field behind his cottage and in this book he diaries his experiences of small scale renaturing. There isn’t enough space for full on rewilding, but there is enough to let nature move back in and to partner with the natural processes to nurture a new landscape that will bring life to a previously quite sterile field. Life is the key here. The end of the world as we know it is not, necessarily, the end of the world full stop. Along the way he meets others who are doing like-minded things at different scales, from rewilding landscapes to potting up window boxes.

As such it is a hopeful book and one that, though it does not offer practical advice as such, does inspire. It is too late to stop the planet breaking through many of the key indicators that have been warned about now for decades, man-made climate change is real and rampant and only one of the devastating impacts we are having, but it isn’t too late to do something positive and meaningful with the wonderful gift of your life. It isn’t too late to build a connection back to the planet that sustains us and the mystery that brought us forth.

And that is the cycle that I am on. Sometimes the state of the world can be overwhelming, other times it can be liberating to accept that our path is set and that to live a human scale life properly rooted in the natural world is a good way to celebrate the mysterious gift of a conscious existence. Renaturing isn’t about saving the world, it’s about small ways that we can rediscover what it means to be alive.

The author tells us his way of renaturing in this journal-structured book.
Some entries record what the author had done in this field, some others link to those actions and offer us solutions.
The intention and the message are great.
I attended a talk about renaturing a couple of years ago, and this book complements it.
3 stars for the writing and the content.
4 stars because of the message.

Although not terribly practical for many readers, this book is an engaging look at the determination of the protagonist to return his property to nature

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Renaturing- Small Ways to Wild the World is a beautiful and thought provoking read.

James Canton acquires a field in north Essex and over an 18 month period takes us on his journey exploring how to give this piece of land back to nature … it’s not as easy as it would seem.

Told in a diary entry form with interspersed sections focussing on key issues, the book comprehensively explores the challenges and successes that James encountered. The seasonal changes bring a closer view of the natural natural and many of its rural wonders

Taking land management “back to basics” with the use of the mattock and the ever resourceful scythe, you can actually feel the physical endurance encountered in particular against the ever invasive bramble

Identifying the species found and the sowing of wild flowers, the knowledge and wisdom is excellent - interspersed with advice from friends and experts and terminology that broadens understanding …bioblitz, wild washing , scarification ,rewilding the mind

This is “a call to arms” to make us consider how from window box, to back garden to large areas we can help save and renature our world and lives.

A great read that charms but more importantly makes us consider what we are doing to the fragile ecosystems around us.